Many people have complained about the Kobo Vox charging situation, viz.

Short Cable

Lack of extra charger for sale

Inability of Tablet to recognise 3rd Party chargers (no green light)

I have read various suggestions about how the charger is wired but nobody has actually published any results.
I have now investigated the wiring of the charger (without opening anything up) and I find the following setup for the micro-B connector -

Pins 1 and 5 provide 5V power - as they normally do

Pins 2 and 3 are shorted together - as they are when a USB outlet is use only for charging (i.e. no data transfer)

Pin 4 is shorted to Pin 5!

Pin 4 in normally not connected for a micro-B type connector so I think that Kobo have used this pin to let their tablet recognise only their own charger - and nobody else's!!

I would like to know if anyone has found the same as I have and if anyone has constructed a suitable adaptor to overcome the Kobo restriction. In the meantime, I will continue my own investigations and, hopefully post some more info.

You got it, PaulLeadbeater! I've long been saying here that Kobo uses all 5 pins, whereas the standard micro-B connector doesn't use pin 4. We still don't know what's in the "lump" in the cable. Some have talked about a resistor. There have been posts here from folks whose dogs have chewed up the charger cable, but nobody has been handy enough to repair it or diagnose the connections and report back. Now someone should try a 2-amp 3rd party charger with pins 4 & 5 shorted and see what it does.

I have now wired-up a micro-B plug with pins 2 & 3 linked, pins 4 & 5 linked and 5V across pins 1 & 5; plus connecting the shield to pin 5 (as the OEM's plug).
Using a 5V 1A (I don't yet have a 2A one) USB charger, I get real charging, indicator light and recognition by the Vox that it is charging.
This now works exactly the same as the supplied charger BUT, the Vox will not respond to the touchscreen while the charger is powered.
I think this is the solution to 3rd Party chargers but is limited to non-operation of the Tablet during charging. Don't know if anyone has suggestions - I suspect noise on the cable may be causing the problem (there is a larger capacitor across the Kobo charger output than across the one I'm using).
I have now tried another power supply (5v 2.5A stabilised) and everything works perfectly!!
So with the right poer supply and my modified cable we have a 3rd Party solution to charging the Kobo Vox
If someone can make the special cable - any offers?

I have tried every charger in all electronics stores but no luck. I contacted kobo and they want me to sent my kobo vox back at my cost. They may fix or replace with a new or reconditon kobo vox I only had the vox for 3 months...kobo sucks

I have tried every charger in all electronics stores but no luck. I contacted kobo and they want me to sent my kobo vox back at my cost. They may fix or replace with a new or reconditon kobo vox I only had the vox for 3 months...kobo sucks

Post your complaint on getsatisfaction.com/kobo (kobo's online support). Many posters have been able to get a replacement charger through the site.

I have an external battery box device which can put out 2 amps. When hooked up to the Vox with a standard USB cable it would keep the Vox at the same charge level for 12 or 20 hours. That is if Vox was at 60% the Vox would stay at 60% while this device as feeding it electricity.

Thanks for this - it's solved the other problem which made the Vox unusable.

I accept oldyellr's comment about cheap chargers, but I travel light through countries with UK 3-pin and EU, USA and Australian 2-pin. Carrying an adapter and individual chargers is a pain, particularly since my original Vox charger is a bulky UK one. It's much less bulky to carry a single, small, locale-specific charger with a USB A female slot, and use cables to charge phone, tablet, Kindle, GPS etc.

So finally, 18 months after buying it, I've got a tablet which I could travel with. Except that it's now underpowered and I gave up and bought something else